Scanning the invest climate, going forward
age-old pronouncements about the country’s “tourist potential.”
If there is every reason to believe that investor interest is likely to grow in the period ahead primarily on account of the oil and gas factor, no concreate official evidence has been tendered to suggest that the promised restructuring and relocation of the crucial Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest) has actually materialized. Government is still in the process of providing potential expatriate investors with evidence that Guyana is really and truly open for investment. The reality is that some measure of bureaucratic red tape and a lack of capacity still persists, GO-Invest notwithstanding and there are those who still question the agency’s boast of a “highly skilled and motivated team.” One must wait and see whether the Agency’s most recent promise of structural change reflected in its promise in an article published in the current issue of INVEST to “revamp its operations with carefully crafted promotional strategies and robust international outreach to attract investments and promote exports for maximum returns without jeopardizing the public good” holds good.
The accession of the coalition administration has witnessed an official focus on the role of Guyanese in the diaspora in the country’s development process. That was attended by an early and aggressive outreach exercise, spearheaded by President Granger himself, in an effort to create the sense of excitement and opportunity afforded by what were, in effect, new opportunities for both Guyana as a country and for its citizens residing in the diaspora. The University of Guyana benefitted from what, perhaps, was the highest level of diaspora response, with several fora being staged locally for overseas-based academics to return to help re-build a UG that had all but collapsed over the previous decades. What is apparent, however, is that Guyana, for a host of reasons, still lacks the enabling environment to accommodate a groundswell of keen Guyanese-born potential investors and highly qualified professionals who may well be ready to roll up their sleeves and help take the country forward.